One Africa Team missionaries Daniel Kroll and Daniel Witte recently visited the country of Cameroon for three busy weeks. They met with several national leaders from both Cameroon and Nigeria at the Baptist Mission Guest House in Douala, Cameroon.

Week One

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is a new outreach contact. One Africa Team has been working with them for some time. Missionary Kroll led Bible studies with Pastor Julius Nkwetta, Mr. Rigobert, Mr. Benjamin, Mr. Eloden, and Mr. Jefferson.

In conjunction with Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, One Africa Team offers a Bachelor of Divinity Program to qualifying national pastors. The program enhances the perspective and capabilities of men that have already been through our worker training programs.  Missionary Witte coordinates this program through One Africa Team’s Confessional Lutheran Institute.

Week Two

Pastors Edward Obi and Michael Egar from All Saints Lutheran (Nigeria), Pastors A.P. Udo and Idorenyin Udo from Christ the King, and Pastors Mesue Israel and Ngalame Gervase from the Lutheran Church of Cameroon are the teachers of their respective church bodies’ worker training schools. Together with Missionaries Witte and Kroll, they evaluated a new curriculum before the beginning of the new school year.  Some of these teachers are stepping in front of the classroom for the very first time. One Africa Team missionaries make themselves available to assist with teaching programs and lesson plans. 

One Africa Team missionaries are careful not to plan for their brothers.  As Pastor Israel says, “Our students are Africans. Who knows them better than their fellow Africans?  It’s up to us as teachers to prepare appropriate questions and discussions.”  It’s pretty hard to argue with that.  That kind of ownership will lead to excellent learning at WELS’s West African partners’ worker training schools.

In the midst of this busy week, Missionaries Witte and Kroll had the honor to meet Chief Ndongue, Quillaume. Chief Ndongue was hoping to sell a piece of land to the Lutheran Church of Cameroon.

Week Three

The Seminary instructors from WELS’s Mission partners in Nigeria spent an extra week in Cameroon. They gained firsthand experience with new teaching methods. Missionaries Kroll and Witte introduced Dialogue Education (DE) to these men. They also taught this method to the seven new pastors in the Lutheran Church of Cameroon.  DE is a relatively new method of teaching adults. When participants participate in their own learning, they will assimilate the new ideas more deeply. Pastor Obi expressed his confidence in this new method saying, “It looks like this can really work to teach well.”

Three very busy weeks in Cameroon – what an opportunity and a blessing to serve the Lord in this way.  One Africa Team missionaries continue to support WELS’s Mission partners in West Africa through the internet. However, nothing builds relationships better than a few weeks of face-to-face busyness!

Missionary Dan Kroll lives in Malawi and serves as the One Africa Team liaison to West Africa.

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

…correctly handling the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15 EHV

For six days, over 30 men of varied theological and educational backgrounds came together as congregational shepherds of the Obadiah Lutheran Synod (OLS) in Uganda. What brought them together was a united confession faith adhering to the Lutheran Confessions, and a commitment to handle the word of God carefully.

In the past year, the OLS has been sharing its confession of faith with many people and throughout the country of Uganda. In response, many individuals, and groups are eager to be part of a church that focuses on the word of God.

However, as a young church body, it does not have a traditional worker training program and if it did, it would take years to prepare enough preachers to serve all the congregations. Therefore, the OLS has realized that it needs to equip and train the elders and leaders of the congregations in a way that will allow them to continue to serve as they learn.

With this goal in mind, the OLS has asked the One Africa Team (OAT) of WELS World Missions to host workshops that will train the leaders of local congregations to be better equipped to handle the word of truth carefully and share it with their congregations.

Therefore, from August 29 to September 3, Rev. Howard Mohlke of the OAT with the few Pastors of the OLS presented a workshop on basic Bible interpretation, and basic devotion/sermon preparation. The main objective of the workshop was to ensure that all participants could read the Bible and recognize the difference between what God asks us to do, law, and what he has done for us, the gospel. A second objective was that church leaders faithfully share that truth in a clear and simple manner.

Additionally, copies of a Catechism Sermon book, developed in Africa and available through Multi-language Publications were distributed to all the participants. The last two days were used to learn how to use the sermon book for personal and public study and preaching.

Over the week, the progress was evident. As the days went by, the preaching of “what God has done for us” to comfort and motivate became clearer. As a result, the temptation to preach a legalistic message faded away.

After each message was shared with the group, the group would then give feedback. That feedback always began with the simple question, “what the gospel proclaimed?” It was then followed by, “what specific promise of God was proclaimed?” It was encouraging to see such honest feedback given in such an encouraging way. No one was criticized but all criticism was given to help one another improve in their presentation of the gospel.

Little by little, Rev. Mohlke’s participation became less, as the experienced pastors and leaders of the OLS led the training and review. This to was done on purpose, so that such training could continue in the OLS without the need for an OAT missionary.

Overall, the workshop in Uganda is a great example of the work of the WELS World Missions One Africa Team. The need for such a workshop was identified by the leadership of the OLS. The workshop focused on the development of word ministry through the art of shepherding. Then finally, the knowledge and skills shared at the workshop will immediately benefit the ministries of OLS congregations.

In this way, the OAT carries out its mission of working with partners in Africa to teach the scriptures, gather the lost, and shepherd God’s people.

Missionary Howard Mohlke is the Leader of One Africa Team and lives in Zambia

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2:46)

Our Lutheran brothers in West Africa often ask out loud, “Are we together?” It’s partly because poor internet connections make it difficult to understand one another. But the question also serves the purpose of verifying group unity during the discussion of vitally important issues.

Together with Missionaries

“Are we together?” is a question that WELS missionaries in Africa can respond to with a resounding, “Yes!” Through weekly online meetings, daily email exchanges, and instant messages the missionaries living in Malawi and in Zambia strive to work closely together.

Last month, the members of the One Africa Team gathered together in Lusaka, Zambia. It was their first face-to-face meeting since 2019. This was an opportunity to renew personal relationships. We also officially welcomed new missionaries Ben Foxen and Keegan Dowling to our team. We face the exciting challenge of knitting together a new team. After 54 years of service, Missionary Ernst Wendland has retired. Several other missionaries will be returning to the States over the next several years,

Our missionaries are also working together to develop new strategies to pursue new mission opportunities across the African continent. We are not abandoning our old friends in Central Africa! Our partners’ stability permits us to consider the redeployment of some of our staff to other regions. It is a humbling privilege to be on the ground floor of these initial conversations. We are developing these plans together and trust the Lord of the harvest to direct us.

Working with Partners

One Africa Team is the face of the WELS in Africa. As such, we act on behalf of our Synod as a “granting agency.” We manage the resources that donors have entrusted to us for kingdom work. One Africa Team works with ministries that 1) share the full Word of God 2) gather and shepherd flocks with Word and Sacrament, and 3) promote local responsibility and ownership. The ministries that meet these criteria are what WELS World Missions considers “healthy” and worthy of support.

Changes to the status quo are both exhilarating and frightening. Missionaries must trust one another unreservedly. New mission families desire to be integrated into the team. Mission partners want to see that their counterparts pay attention to their concerns. We all need encouragement to stand firm against Satan’s assaults on the Gospel. Meeting together in person meets all of these needs and many more. “Are we together?” “By the grace of God, we are together!”

Missionary John Roebke lives in Malawi

Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts at https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa